Smart and Proactive Brand Protection is Critical for Oregon and Washington Businesses

On behalf of Slinde Nelson on Monday, December 19, 2011.

It is astonishing how many trademarks you come across in the course of a day. Just start counting each trademark you see or hear when you leave the house and feel free to stop when you hit 1000 (which most will get to by the time they arrive at work). As a Portland trademark lawyer, I find it equally astonishing how few business have taken steps to protect their trademark, service mark, name or brand.

Business owners are often under the misconception that filing for a business registration or an assumed business name is all they need to do. Unfortunately, sometimes they learn the hard way that is not true when they want to stop a competitor from using the same or similar mark. Or worse yet, when they are on the receiving end of a cease and desist letter. Either way, federal trademark litigation is no fun. It's costly and it carries with it risk that your brand is damaged. Most of all, it can distract you from your core business.

The good news is that it is not too late to take steps to protect your trademark. At Slinde Nelson we can help with the trademark application filing, the trademark registration process, enforcement of you IP rights, protection of the company's goodwill, or responding to cease and desist letters. If things go wrong, our staff of federal trademark litigation attorneys can help you protect your brand in court. But, if you're careful, it hopefully won't have to come to that.